The Heritage Advancement Forum (HAF), a Non-Governmental Organisation, has offered free medical outreach to no fewer than 500 less-privileged people in the Alagutan community, Lagos State.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the medical outreach was organised by the forum on Saturday, October 28, 2023.
Anegbode Odion, the Vice-President of HAF, said the free medical service would help the people in the community live a healthy lifestyle and take precautionary measures for their well-being.
Odion said that the Alagutan community in Ajah was chosen for the outreach because most residents of the area were vulnerable and could not cater for their medical needs.
He explained that no fewer than 500 adults and children benefited from the medical outreach including screenings for blood sugar, blood pressure, diabetes, malaria tests and treatment, eye tests, scaling, teeth polishing and general body checkups.
Odion said the outreach was one of the ways the organisation gave back to society while making healthcare services accessible to people who cannot afford hospital bills.
According to him, the outreach has been on for over seven years now; through which the organisation visits government hospitals from time to time to offset bills of the indigent patients detained in the hospital because of their inability to pay.
Odion said that the organisation was instituted to improve the well-being of indigent citizens across the country, saying that the gesture was not limited to Lagos State alone but cuts across other states of the Federation.
“The major objective for the outreach is to bring healthcare services closer to the community at no cost at all because access to medical care is a big challenge in Nigeria.
“A lot of people with one underlying ailment or the other are dying in silence because they can’t afford the exorbitant hospital bills.
“Imagine that a patient is being detained in the hospital for the inability to pay N20,000 medical bills as was the case in most hospitals visited by the organisation in recent times.
“The organisation is committed to serving the community, by ensuring that life becomes more meaningful to the indigent citizens,” he said.
Also speaking, Kevin Ebhojie, Chairman, Board of Trustees, HAF, expressed the commitment of the organisation to continually ensure that the masses and indigent Nigerians have access to healthcare services at no cost.
According to Ebhojie, the organisation plans to increase the frequency of the outreach so that more communities across the country will be covered by the increased number of beneficiaries of the programme.
He said that free drugs were dispensed to the beneficiaries based on their health conditions, while those whose medical needs could not be immediately provided were referred to appropriate hospitals.
“The outreach is being carried out twice in a year; this one is the second phase of it in 2023.
“And we plan to increase the frequency of the outreach come 2024 so that more people can benefit from the programme.
“Our desire is to provide the medical services any patient may need.
“But, in case of any serious health challenge that we may not be able to handle immediately, we usually refer them to appropriate hospitals and follow up with the financial requirements in any little way we can,” he said.
Dr Chinasa Gerald, a General Physician, urged the residents to be hygiene conscious and always keep their environment clean to be able to live a healthy life.
Gerald, also a consulting doctor at the event, identified unhygienic and dirty environments as contributing factors to the health conditions of most residents of the area.
According to him, there is an urgent need for cleanups and environmental sanitation in the community.
“An unhealthy environment creates room for ill health.
“When the environment is polluted with contaminated stagnant water and mosquitoes breeding outlets all around; there is no way people living within the area will not be falling sick.
“Hygiene is paramount to good health; let the inhabitants of this community be conscious of hygiene,” Gerald said.
Dr Tobechukwu Osuji, an Optometrist, urged Nigerians to cultivate the habit of going for eye check-ups from time to time to enhance their vision.
According to him, adults who are 40 years old and above are expected to go for eye check-ups at least once every year, while individuals below 40 years are to go for eye check-ups once every two years if there are no complaints.
A beneficiary of the outreach, Blessing Jeremiah, appreciated the organisation for the outreach that provided an opportunity for many indigent residents of the community to access healthcare.
Jeremiah, who admitted that an unhygienic environment and stress were major factors contributing to the health conditions of residents, said that access to healthcare services was a big challenge to most of them due to poverty.
According to her, the outreach provided an opportunity for her baby to go for an infection test and be treated, while she also received medical care for her ulcer health condition.